BELGRADE (Serbia) - Over the past 11 years, Serbia claimed five medals from major international events. But one color is missing, and they will take all step necessary to paint 2025 in gold.
Coach Svetislav Pesic orchestrated a wonderful run at the FIBA EuroBasket 2022, but Serbia were stunned in the Round of 16, losing to Italy and finishing ninth despite a 5-1 record.
Since then, they have been nothing short of sensational. Pesic's men played the Final of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023, won bronze at the Paris 2024 Olympics, and were one of only three nations to reach FIBA EuroBasket 2025 with a perfect 6-0 Qualifiers record.
They aren't even trying to hide it, they don't want just another medal - they want to win gold in Latvia.
Schedule
August 27: vs Estonia (20:15 CET) August 29: vs Portugal (20:15 CET) August 30: vs Latvia (17:00 CET) September 1: vs Czechia (20:15 CET) September 3: vs Türkiye (20:15 CET)
Star Player
NBA champion, NBA Finals MVP, triple NBA Most Valuable Player, seven-time NBA All-Star, and two-time Olympic medalist. Nikola Jokic is exactly as described, one of the biggest superstars in all of sports right now.
The Serbian center feels at home in the national team, surrounded by a majority of players around his age, people he had played with since they were kids. Now it's time to reap the benefits of that familiarity.
Jokic has played the EuroBasket only once, in 2022. He powered Serbia's run with 21.7 points, 10.0 rebounds and 4.3 assists, giving him an unreal tournament efficiency rating of 31.7, but you know he doesn't care all that much about those numbers.
The only thing that matters to the Joker right now is finishing a tournament with a win on September 14.
History
As part of the SFR Yugoslavia, winning the event in 1973, 1975, 1977, 1989 and 1991; and FR Yugoslavia, finishing first in 1995, 1997 and 2001, Serbia enjoyed plenty of success in FIBA EuroBasket history, and they've continued picking up medals even after they started playing as Serbia in 2007.
They've made it to the Final twice, with another fourth place in 2015, and back-to-back Quarter-Finals in 2011 and 2013. In fact, they made winning such a habit that their 9th place in 2022 was considered an underachievement.
Runners-up: 2009, 2017
EuroBasket Top Scorers
Rank | Player | Games | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Radivoj Korac | 34 | 844 |
2 | Dragan Kicanovic | 40 | 662 |
3 | Drazen Dalipagic | 43 | 623 |
4 | Nenad Krstic | 33 | 461 |
5 | Dejan Bodiroga | 37 | 440 |
6 | Predrag Danilovic | 33 | 403 |
7 | Milos Teodosic | 32 | 384 |
8 | Ratko Radovanovic | 35 | 384 |
9 | Bogdan Bogdanovic | 29 | 367 |
10 | Vlade Divac | 34 | 364 |
How they qualified
Gameday 1: SRB 77-61 FIN Gameday 2: GEO 63-76 SRB Gameday 3: DEN 52-72 SRB Gameday 4: SRB 98-51 DEN Gameday 5: FIN 95-105 SRB Gameday 6: SRB 63-54 GEO
Poll: Where will they finish?
Tickets
FIBA